Embedded Files
DriveEasy
Timeline
July - September 2023
Collaborators
2 Designers, 1 Researcher, 1 Content Designer, 1 Product Manager, 2 Engineers
Role
Designer, Researcher
Tools
Figma, UserTesting, Axure RP
DriveEasy is an application that tracks information from a user's mobile device to determine how safely they are driving. The safer they drive, the more savings are offered to them.
SUMMARY
I revamped the settings section of our new customer application
As a member of the telematics team at GEICO, I was responsible for transforming existing designs and wireframes into development-ready prototypes. In doing so, I achieved the following:
01 Creating
Owned the research and design for the settings of the application, focused efforts on reducing user confusion
02 Teaching
Learned how to use Figma variables to create more advanced prototypes and dispersed that knowledge to the rest of the team
03 Presenting
Prepared and presented slides documenting the new designs' effectiveness to upper managers and C-suite executives
BUSINESS GOALS
A few key factors set the stage for my work
The main priority of the company at the time was to increase DriveEasy adoption in customer policies
There was a planned customer launch to 1 million+ users, 5 months from when I began the project
The existing independent DriveEasy experience had to be audited and redesigned to be integrated into the primary GEICO app
How might we improve upon our existing settings menu?
USER RESEARCH
Improving on something like settings would require extreme attention to detail, and that mindset guided my research
By guiding 12 participants through moderated usability tests on UserTesting, I was able to find the following:
01 Alerts Unnoticed
Notifications that alerted users to complete critical steps in the setup process were not noticed by a large portion of our testers
02 Unclear Consequences
Users did not fully understand what would happen if they tried to cancel DriveEasy or turn off their monitoring permissions
03 Confusion With Invites
There was confusion around why users needed to invite other members of their policy to setup the app and how to do so
SOLUTIONS
The research provided actionable insights into how to move forward
Because I was so diligent with what information I gathered in my research, I found new points of friction that previously went unnoticed, with major consequences. My research also enabled me to put together viable solutions to each issue.
Actionable Alerts
I modified preexisting components from our design library to create alerts that actually communicated what users needed to do to ensure that their app worked properly.
This saved time for our design systems team as well as our developers, given that no new components needed to be created from scratch to accomplish the goal.
Before
After
Alerts like the one above simultaneously solved each of our friction points
They stood out much more to users, leading to far fewer alerts going unnoticed
They clearly communicated the consequences of taking actions like disabling DriveEasy, eliminating ambiguity
They conveyed what actions users needed to take to resolve the issue at hand, and explained why it was needed
Apart from the alerts, clearer copy and more intuitive navigation rounded out the other problems found in testing
COLLABORATION AND ALIGNMENT
This process was only possible due to consistent communication
Throughout the design process, I was frequently leveraging the strengths of my teammates to produce the best results. I would frequently contact our other researcher to validate my test plans, our content designer to ensure our copy was effective, and other designers to bounce ideas off of.
I also worked closely with the product manager to verify that my solutions aligned with their vision for the app, and with the engineers to guarantee they could implement my solutions.
LEARNING NEW SKILLS
I studied Figma variables to make better prototypes and shared with the team
While assembling the prototype, I found my knowledge to be a limiting factor. In looking for a solution, I found a new Figma feature called variables and used my knowledge in computer science to learn and implement variables throughout the prototype.
I taught the other designers on the team how to use the feature, resulting in higher fidelity prototypes across the board.
RESULTS
My solutions improved user ratings and impressed the C-Suite
I tested the new designs with the same methodology and found significant improvements. I compiled these results and my new prototypes into slides as a part of a team presentation to the Chief Technology Officer. They were satisfied with our changes and impressed by how well our prototypes emulated the user experience.
LEARNINGS
This project taught me how to design in a corporate setting
Resources like time and energy are finite. If you can find a way to reduce how much work your solution produces while maintaining its effectiveness, you should do so
Initiative is necessary when everyone has their own projects. Being the first to reach out to team members to schedule meetings, check-ins, or reviews is the fastest way to get things going
Learning never stops. If you put in the time to learn new techniques and hone your skills, your educational relationship with your seniors can be a two-way street instead of a one-way
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